That reality has enormous implications for education policymakers, public colleges and the workforce. Student-parents are disproportionately enrolled at public institutions, and our success pays dividends for those institutions, communities and state economies. And yet we continue to be largely invisible in campus life, often omitted from funding discussions and frequently absent from the data campuses collect. Many of our challenges go wholly unaddressed and unseen.
In a 2024 survey by Trellis Strategies, for example, more than 6 in 10 student-parent respondents reported being housing insecure, while more than half described themselves as food insecure and over one-third said a loss of child care would force them to drop or reduce classes. Student-parents are far less likely than students without children to finish a bachelor’s degree within six years.
These learners represent one of the country’s most important — and overlooked — talent pipelines. Supporting the needs of students with dependent children should be a priority for higher-education institutions and policymakers if they want to build the workforce of the future. At a moment when the economy is showing increasing signs of strain, the country cannot afford to sideline individuals simply because they are also raising children. We need those parent learners in the workforce as soon as possible.
It’s heartening to see some colleges beginning to rise to the challenge.
At Austin Community College, for instance, the Parenting Students Project offers child-care scholarships, monthly stipends and a targeted case management approach to student support. San Diego-based National University, a nonprofit institution focused on the needs of military members and veterans, created the Nest, a “co-learning” center inspired by co-working spaces that includes an on-site child-care program for parenting students. In Chicago, the two-generational model of Hope Chicago provides direct support for both high school seniors and their parents to pursue postsecondary education together. A notable statewide example is Minnesota’s North Star Promise program and its Student Parent Support Initiative. Since January, nearly 17,000 students have received scholarships through North Star Promise.
Across the country, institutions are combining more intentional advising and coaching with wraparound supports like child care, transportation assistance and flexible scheduling to create an environment where student-parents can thrive. Having free or reduced-cost child care on campus can address many issues parent-learners face, but so too can smaller lifts like nursing rooms and policies that allow babies in classrooms.
But promising efforts like these remain the exception rather than the rule: Minnesota is one of only six states with statutory requirements to collect data on student-parents. To truly move the needle, states and institutions of higher education can start by collecting better data on student-parents. Without knowing who these students are, institutions cannot design effective supports.
Just as important, those supports should be fully integrated into the student experience, not scattered across disconnected offices. Child care, advising, financial aid, flexible scheduling and health services should feel like parts of one system, rather than individual hoops for students to navigate alone. Institutions especially need to take care to ensure that student-parents are visible, with programs and messaging that reflect their role as both caregivers and learners.
The barriers student-parents face are not about any lack of talent or determination. The data tells us the opposite: Student-parents consistently post higher GPAs. They are motivated and capable, with life experience that adds value to the classroom and the workplace.
The real obstacles are the absence of coherent support, the rigid schedules that assume students have endless flexibility, and the programs built for an idealized “traditional” student, not for a parent working, studying and raising a family all at once.
It’s time for colleges and employers to recognize this growing subset of college-goers not as peripheral but as a cornerstone of today’s student population. When student-parents succeed — not in spite of their caregiving responsibilities, but because higher education is built to support them — our campuses, our workforce and our communities all become stronger.
Ruth Bauer is president of InsideTrack, a nonprofit that provides coaching services aimed at empowering all learners to achieve their educational and career goals to facilitate economic and social mobility.
Governing’s opinion columns reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Governing’s editors or management.
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